Estes Park Trail-Gazette News

Colorado's booming beer taprooms experience some growing pains

Patrons crowd the taproom at Dry Dock Brewing Co. in Aurora for trivia night this month. (Photos by Karl Gehring, The Denver Post)

The proliferation of taprooms in Colorado, with dozens opening each year, has sent Ginger Alferos and her beer-drinking pal Jenny Herman on an increasingly challenging mission.

"Our goal is to try every brewery," said Alferos, 40, sitting with Herman at a picnic table on a recent warm evening outside downtown Denver's 2-year-old River North Brewery. "So we actually got a map of all the breweries in Colorado, and we go camping a lot. We try to hit every single one."

While most brewery taprooms are greeted with welcoming arms and thirsty customers, owners of a handful have clashed with their neighbors over parking, food trucks and zoning issues.

Industry leaders say Colorado's regulatory climate, while not unique among some states, gets much of the credit for a taproom explosion that began nearly a decade ago. There are now 80 to 100 small breweries with taprooms on site — industry leaders don't know the exact number — where craft connoisseurs mix it up with their favorite brewmasters.

Colorado's licensing laws allow new breweries to open on-site tasting areas that operate much like bars, but without much local red tape.

Unlike brew pubs and bars, taprooms may serve only their own brews, with no other alcohol, and they can't open kitchens.

That dynamic has opened opportunities for a growing army of food trucks — a perfect symbiotic match between startup-heavy industries.

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With so many options, Alferos and Herman, 27, are picky about return visits. They judge atmosphere as much as beer quality. And Herman talks about the importance of developing "a relationship with the brewer" at her favorite places.

But not everyone relishes the rapid growth in taprooms.

A complicating factor, some local officials say, is that breweries seeking to open a taproom don't have to go through the local liquor license review process, which allows for public input. They need only state-issued manufacturing and wholesale licenses.

Bartender Matt Smith looks through the prizes Dry Dock Brewing Co. has collected over the years. Dry Dock was among the first breweries in the city to open a tasting room. (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post)

In Golden, neighbors of Mountain Toad Brewing recently appealed to the city to address the parking and noise issues that resulted after the brewery opened in May. So far, the city has tried putting up "neighborhood parking only" signs. And Mountain Toad owners are asking patrons to park in nearby business lots and to respect the neighbors.

William and Janis Keske, who have owned two rental cottages and a home west of the brewery for 13 years, aren't optimistic.

"Our bedroom window looks down into their patio — that's how close we are," William Keske said. "We get the food odors and the noise any time starting at noon until (late at night)."

In northwest Denver, Hogshead Brewery has clashed with some neighbors over its outdoor patio, food trucks and other issues. It opened in 2012 in a renovated old service station on West 29th Avenue, in a mostly residential neighborhood.

While zoning rules prohibit food trucks in Hogshead's parking lot most of the time, it has used a 12-day special-event city permit that's available every 90 days.

"We are trying to be good neighbors and be a part of this community and be good to this community," said tasting-room manager Rick Harvell. "We created jobs here and built a strong community following. And 99 percent of the community loves us."

Regulations catching up

As with any fast-growing industry, regulations have been catching up.

Even Denver, a taproom mecca, has had to adapt its zoning rules, including new fixes recently, to accommodate breweries that historically were seen as strictly industrial operations. Some limits restrict operating hours to end at 10 p.m. weekdays and 11 p.m. weekends for taprooms near residential areas.

Elsewhere, Lone Tree and Lafayette are among cities and towns that have adapted their zoning rules to attract brewery taprooms while also setting ground rules.

But some local officials still express concern about the loose state licensing rules for taprooms.

(Karl Gehring, The Denver Post)

"It's not so much that municipalities are saying that we don't want them here in the first place. People want them there," said Kevin Bommer, deputy director of the Colorado Municipal League, which has heard from several cities and towns on the topic. "(But) with any other state or local license, you have dealt with (noise and traffic) issues upfront, or the local municipality has a chance to rectify those issues."

Colorado Brewers Guild spokesman Steve Kurowski and other industry leaders say problems are rare,because taprooms tend to close earlier than bars and operate as neighborhood establishments.

"Here's what I think should happen," said Kevin DeLange, co-owner of Aurora's Dry Dock Brewing Co. "Each local municipality can't regulate from a liquor standpoint. The way they have control is zoning. ... You are a manufacturer, and they have control over where they allow manufacturing."

Dry Dock, seen as a taproom pioneer since its 2005 opening in an Aurora strip mall off East Hampden Avenue, weathered zoning issues, too. But DeLange says he worked with officials to modernize that city's rules.

"It's happening too quick"

State licensing data shows Colorado has 241 active brewing licensees, but not all are operating yet.

Although the state and the Colorado Brewers Guild don't keep count of breweries with taprooms, Kurowski says the guild knows of 103 manufacturing breweries, most of which now have taprooms on site. An additional 111 licensees operate brew pubs.

"It's happening too quick (to track)," he said, with more than 40 breweries opening last year alone and 70 now in planning stages. "We don't even know when every brewery is opening up."

On the weeknight when Alferos and Herman visited, River North was packed. Outside, on dead-end 24th Street, Chuey FU's food truck ("Latin-Asian Grub") served up food, with owner Joe Knoblich running orders inside.

That's the way it goes at many taprooms.

While some provide patrons with take-out menus from nearby restaurants, the typical source of grub for beer-drinkers' stomachs has been an increasingly creative parade of food trucks that dish up barbecue, soul food, Tex-Mex or fusion concoctions right outside.

Some trucks even rotate among a circuit of breweries, with each business boosting the other.

"You create a loyal following that's going to come and see you," said Knoblich as he closed his truck. He first fired it up in January.

"They're going to come in and get a beer and have some food," he said. "It's a give-and-take."

Observers say plenty more taprooms are on the way.

Kurowski sees plenty of room for industry growth, because no breweries have opened on the Eastern Plains.

But DeLange sees another cycle in the offing: a surge in brew pubs, with new owners seeking to differentiate themselves from all the taprooms.

Sitting outside River North, though, Alferos predicted a sink-or-swim climate as the market becomes saturated. She said some places still felt gimmicky.

"The real people and the real deal are going to rise to the surface," she said, "and everybody else is going to fall off."

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